- - -
POV: Marcus Novak.
I stepped through the Stargate and once more into Azaryn's Vivarium. Behind me, the Rafflesia Azathea was wheeled through the gate on a trolley of sorts. The Astrocreator's eyes shot open in surprise. I smiled. "We had to use some rather drastic measures to get her to bloom, but here she is."
The Astrocreator's surprise seemed to morph into glee. "I'm impressed you were able to apply the required amount of energy to induce it to bloom. The Rafflesia Azathea sure is an interesting plant, wouldn't you agree? Evolution truly is a wondrous thing."
I raised an eyebrow. "We were under the impression that it was an artificial creation."
The Astrocreator gently shook her head. "No. Quite natural. It grows at the top of mountains and collects lightning strikes. It takes decades for the flower to gather enough energy to bloom under normal circumstances."
The Astrocreator turned away from the flower and nodded. "Come, we have some things to discuss."
I followed her on a short walk into her home, where we both took a seat. The Astrocreator began the moment I had sat down. "Would you sacrifice your own kind if it meant you could save lives elsewhere, on a massive scale?
I let out a sigh. "I don't know. If it were just two or three people for the lives of millions, then I probably would, but more than that and it gets blurry."
She frowned. "Guess, then. If you absolutely had to choose, would you?"
I was silent for a moment, but I already knew my answer. "No. I wouldn't. I don't think most people would."
Azaryn nods sympathetically. "Indeed, it is not an easy thing to do. I appreciate your honesty. It is my belief that for the betterment of all, intelligent life must always give precedence to the selfless choice."
I raised an eyebrow. "I don't agree. It isn't the purpose of everyday people to consider such things. That's what leaders are for, and in times of war, that is what soldiers are for."
Azaryn smiled once more. "An interesting viewpoint. It is a shame I had not contacted a militaristic race such as yourselves before. They could have offered much insight. I have one final question for you. Would you hesitate to remove a threat?"
I blinked. "If it were an immediate threat? No, I would not."
The Astrocreator smiled in response. "I agree. Decisiveness is vital, but some situations require extra consideration. What if you do not know whether something is a threat? Unfortunately, one does not always have the privilege of extra time. Decisions must be made, and a moment of deliberation could be the difference between success and failure."
I smiled bitterly. "Decisive action is just as likely to get one killed as a moment of hesitation. It's just usually a much slower death."
Azaryn is quiet for a moment. Then concludes, "Well, I have asked you enough questions. You possess admirable patience. I will take some time to collate this information. Give me a few days, and I will contact you again."
I raised an eyebrow. "Before you presented your gifts, we were actually hoping to hire you to help with terraforming a unique world."
Azaryn smiled. "Give me a few days. We will have time to discuss this in depth then."
I eventually gave up and shrugged. Azaryn saw us back through the gate. As we left, I asked a rather important question. "Would you like to have the flower returned?"
She smiled lightly. "No. It is a gift. It would be uncouth to request it be returned. I will tell you this: the flower can be coaxed into releasing the energy poured into it."
That changed a lot. It meant that the flower was effectively just a battery… or a bomb. "Explosively?"
Azaryn smiled this time. "No, it will just slowly release the electrical energy poured into it."
I let out a slight sigh of relief while I nodded once. "Thank you for the gift."
- - -
POV: Arthur Sinclair. Two weeks after the completion of the first Universal Smelter.
The Smelter had been a great success. Our main issue was with the secondary products. The device ripped molecules apart into their base components. The issue was that it struggled to separate away lighter elements such as oxygen, carbon, and (most importantly) fluorine. So, these elemental atoms would immediately form random bonds, and many of those with fluorine as a component were quite toxic.
For now, the consensus was that we'd just dump all of it into space. As long as everyone had a spacesuit on, these byproducts were totally harmless. Long term, however, that was incredibly wasteful. So the plan was eventually to create a chemical factory that could convert these elemental atoms into more stable forms we could use for later projects.
Now, we had about thirty smelters that were constantly taking in material and outputting pure Naquadah. We also had plans for aluminium, titanium, copper, germanium, molybdenum, silver, tungsten, and gold.
All of this led to our current issue. At our current rate of development, we would start running out of computing devices. That would put a full stop to any continued industrial plans.
There were three ways to remedy the issue. The first was to produce a machine capable of producing computing devices. Likely some sort of circuit etcher. The issue is that such a device would take many months to create. In terms of sheer complexity, it would be above even our current Jump Fighter Prototype. This would be our long-term solution. We were not currently at a point where we had the resources for such a project.
The second was simply to wait until the fleet reached the Inner Sphere, and then purchase compads en masse. That was currently our medium-term solution, but the fleet was still five and a half months from reaching the Inner Sphere.
That's where the third option came in. We try to purchase electronics from the Pax Magellanic. The High Guard Glorious Heritage Class Cruiser, the Pax Magellanic being one of the earliest vessels of the class commissioned, was loaded with extensive production facilities. According to the history we had purchased from the Curators, all vessels of the class could produce their own ammunition (including so-called "Smart Ammunition"), replacement hardware for the Ship's AI, and attendant small craft.
So, the next step was finding out whether I could use Systems Commonwealth computer tech. So, before me were the thirteen flexis that we had taken from the Garuda Class Slip Fighters.
First Perk Activated. Complete Blueprint Acquired: Systems Commonwealth Flexi.
Systems Commonwealth Translation Software, Flexi OS, Nanopixel
The Flexi comprised quadrillions of nanoscale robots, which operated together to form a computer. Each of the Nanopixels was an independent computing device, but when you connected enough of them together, you could get an easily scalable screen.
The typical size for a Flexi was about the size of an A5 sheet of paper, which meant there were about four quadrillion individual nanopixels within. The total data storage of a Flexi was truly insane.
Now that I knew what I was working with, I was pretty sure that a Flexi was entirely too much for what I needed. Excellent!
While the individual components of the device were already amazing enough, the OS was incredibly robust. It had clearly been designed to work and survive in high-radiation environments, such as the depths of space.
Finally, likely the single most important part. The translation software was an incredible piece of work. By default, it included nearly 13 million individual languages, and at least four times that in various planetary and individual dialects.
Even better, it could easily accept new languages as well. I would have to work on getting this program transferred to a compad immediately, though on second thought, it wasn't likely that anything but a flexi or the most advanced Goa'uld computer system would even be capable of running it, so maybe not.
This just confirmed what I was already thinking. We needed more of these devices. They were incredibly powerful, incredibly compact, and incredibly versatile.
Even better, I was pretty sure I could make some significant improvements to the OS and the translation software by applying Star League compression algorithms.
That was something for later consideration. I turned back to find Ma'chello rubbing his hands together. "What's the verdict?"
I nodded. "It's an incredible piece of technology. Retrofitting it for our use should be pretty easy. I would just need to design a connector of some type, but once that connector is defined, you can use basically any spot on the device as an output."
Ma'chello blinked at me. "Really? That is incredible."
I nodded once more and began explaining how the device worked. It was several hours later when I had finished with my in-depth explanation.
I didn't need to bother with creating a direct interface between the Flexi and the Compad. Ma'chello had already created one when we found it in the first wreck. The thing was clearly made to be as universally applicable as possible, which made sense coming from a Republic of potentially thousands of separate species.
- - -
The Next Day.
I entered the room and nodded to Arriston. "Mr. President."
He smiled and nodded back. "Arthur. What do you have for us today?"
I nodded and presented a Flexi. The next thirty minutes were spent explaining the device and what it could do. As I finished the final round of explanations on the device, I finally began explaining why I was showing them off. "At the moment, we have about 500 compads that are ready for industrial applications. Frankly, at our current rate, that won't last us more than a couple of months. Now, we plan to purchase more of them once our fleet reaches the Inner Sphere, but it will stop the expansion of our industrial capabilities for at least five to six months."
I paused for a moment before continuing. "Unlike the compads though, we have a potential avenue for getting more flexis. We can try to purchase them from the Pax Magellanic."
Arriston nodded. "Alright. What security measures do these devices have?"
I explained what I knew. "The Flexi has absolutely no wireless capability, but assuming you can touch it, it has very little security. Of course, I could add further measures if needed, but for our current applications, this is more than enough."
The President tapped his desk a few times. "We really need computational devices, don't we?"
I nodded, and he continued. "Our main issue is that we have nothing that the Pax Magellanic would be interested in."
I nodded bitterly. "That is only partially correct. It is likely that she would be interested in both the list of Systems Commonwealth Warships and the history up through the Battle of Witchhead. Other than that, we can offer her raw materials, though whether she would accept them is questionable at best. We can also offer her examples of Goa'uld technologies; we don't know how much Goa'uld technology has advanced since her time, so she may be interested in examples of modern Goa'uld vessels."
I hesitated for a moment before continuing. "At least as far as I've seen, Star League data compression techniques are more efficient than what I've seen from the Systems Commonwealth. She may be interested in the Star League computational technology."
The President seemed silent for a while. "Alright. You've convinced me."
He turned to Ma'chello behind me. "How many of these flexis would we need to deal with the computing shortage?"
Without any hesitation, Ma'chello answered. "For Industrial Applications? 10,000. If we want to use them for military and civilian applications as well, then we need at least ten times that."
He nodded. "We'll be preparing a negotiation team then. We should get in contact with Captain Pearce within a week."
I nodded. "Thank you." As I moved to stand up and leave the room, I was hit with a notification from the forge.
Special Achievement: Recruit a Legendary Paragon (Astrocreator Azaryn)
Perk 'Ars Magus Creation | Armagus Creation' missed due to insufficient points.
(Available Points: 300, Required Points: 600, Points Doubled, New Point Total: 600)
I stood there speechless for several moments. That was certainly an interesting notification.